My better half tried to get a mobile phone contract with Optus and after a lot of faffing about and wasted hours she was told that she could not have one as she hasn’t been in the country long enough (2 months) and has only had a bank account for the same period and also that she would need to stay on her pre paid plan for a few more months before she could get a contract. Has anyone else had this issue or has she been misinformed?

I got one earlier this year having only been in the country a couple of weeks so it sounds like she's been misinformed. That was with 3 (now bought by Vodafone).

I swerve clear of Optus anyway if I were you, no-one I know who is with them has a good word to say.

Thanks for the feedback, but I heard Vodafone have issues with their network??

Just a thought; you might want to take a look at 'amaysim'. I've just been scouting around to get rid of Virgin and this looks as though it might be a good alternative to a plan. The rates are cheap enough and no contracts. BYO phone though.

We use Optus for home phone, broadband and iphone 4 and have found them good. Ended up putting the iphone in my hubby's name though because he is Aussie with credit history here so was easier.

Telestra is the one I'd steer clear of but then others might disagree!

Does anyone have any links to good mobile phone comparison sites over in Oz to help compare the deals on offer etc?

The 3 network for me has been great in Sydney, I even plug it into my laptop and use it as as wireless modem and it s a good connection. Though I do lose the network when I go out of town and have to roam on telstra network instead which is expensive.

I don't really know which is best, everyone seems to have totally different experiences! But it is strange you can't get a contract.

There are several discussion threads on Whirlpool, such as http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum....cfm?t=1572741. I found a website a while ago via Whirlpool, but must have forgotten to save it, sorry.

Cheers will take a look. Please reply or PM me if you think of that site!

I've just changed to them from Virgin after another poster mentioned them. So far they seem well organised. Just waiting for my number to be ported across.